Bad Girls of the Bible: Lot's Wife

Bad Girls of the Bible: Lot’s Wife

Genesis 19:1-28

*This is based on the book Bad Girls of the Bible by Lizz Curtis Higgs. Any quotes taken and not referenced is out of laziness, not thievery.

Bad Girls:      Bad to the Bone- Not a single kind word was ever spoken about them in scripture; a pattern of sinning; no evidence of remorse, repentance, or a desire to change; they sinned with gusto. Made in the image of God, so not truly bad to the core—they just behaved that way.

                        Bad for a Moment- Women who made one huge, colossal, life changing blooper that was recorded in scripture to teach everyone else a lesson. Seem to be believers in the one true God at the start but when forced to make a decision, chose disastrously.

                        Bad for a Season, but not Forever- Sins in their past, but were willing to change and be changed.

Intro: We are only into week 3 of this 10 part series of Bad Girls of the Bible and we already have our 2^nd no name woman. Today we are going to be looking at Lot’s wife. She is one of the nameless biblical characters known only for their more famous husband, son, daughter, or parent. In this particular story her famous husband is only famous because he has a famous uncle, Abraham.

            A little Doofenschmirtz back story: Abraham and Lot were traveling together. Both owned cattle and sheep and were nomads. It got to the point where God had blessed them both so much that the land was unable to sustain both of them together and their servants were fighting with each other. So Abraham decided they should split ways, and even though he was older, wiser, and had a covenant relationship with God, Abraham allowed Lot to choose which direction he would go in. Lot chose the more favorable and the better watered of the two destinations. Lot was greedy but Abraham was blessed through this as the inhabitants of the land Lot chose were the most wicked people in all of the land.

            Ever want something really badly and then didn’t get it? Then it turned out better for you that you didn’t get it? That’s what happened to Abraham. He got the lesser of the two choices of land, which seemed like a raw deal, and he was upset about it. Immediately after Lot separated from him, the Lord appeared to Abraham and gave him a pep talk, telling him just how much he was going to be blessed.

            In chapter 18 Abraham was visited by three men who told him that within a year Abraham and Sarah were going to have a baby. Remember Abraham was in his 90’s and Sarah was right behind him. After dinner the men arose and looked towards Sodom. Then God said “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am going to do?” He then let Abraham know that he was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of the outcry of wickedness is so great. Only problem: Lot lives in Sodom. So Abraham begins to bargain with God like an auctioneer in reverse and talks God down from destroying the city if He finds 50 people down to 10 people. Then the two men leave. Genesis 19:1 says, “Now the two angels came to Sodom….” In chapter 18 there were 3 men, but in 19 there were 2 angels. In chapter 18 we have what’s called a Christophany—that’s a 50 cent word that means that Jesus appeared in person to someone, in this particular case with 2 accompanying angels.

            The angels’ job was to go into Sodom and Gomorrah and seek out 10 righteous people and if they can’t find 10 then they would destroy the cities. It may seem odd that God was negotiating with man, but in reality God knows the condition of each of our souls and knew that there were not fifty, forty-five, forty, or even ten righteous people living in Sodom and Gomorrah combined.

Genesis 19:1-3 The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth ² and said, “My lords, please turn aside to your servant's house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way.” They said, “No; we will spend the night in the town square.” ³ But he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

            Hospitality was a big deal back in the day, and Lot was very eager to be hospitable to these two men. Was he being hospitable because he recognized something great in them, because he was a shrewd businessman and saw potential new clients in them, or because he knew the town square was not a safe place for them? We don’t know. All we know is that he was eager to host them at his house. Why did the men initially refuse the invitation? Were they full from Abraham’s meal? Probably not. They remembered their mission and felt the town square would give them the best view.

            Young ladies, notice it says that “he” made them a feast and baked them bread. And Mrs. Lot is yet to come on the scene.

Gen 19:4-7 But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. ⁵ And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” ⁶ Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, ⁷ and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.

            Every last man of the city, young and old, surrounded Lot’s house in order that they could rape the newcomers. In a moment of bravery, Lot stepped out of his house, shut the door behind him and pleaded with them not to act so wickedly. Personally, my house has never been surround by every male member of the town looking to rape someone, but if it ever was I assure you going outside to reason with them would not be my first action step. But remember, hospitality was a big deal back then. Those men were under his roof and, therefore, under his protection.

Gen 19:8 Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.”

            All warm thoughts about Lot being a brave man, just chuck them out the window. Sure it was his job to protect the two strangers in his house, but what about his two flesh and bone daughters that were born and remained under his roof and, therefore under his protection? Young ladies: Imagine your house being surrounded by a mob of people looking to rape someone, and your loving father offers you up as an alternative solution. Young men: Could you ever imagine offering up your daughter to be raped by a mob of people?

            Unfortunately this kind of behavior is not limited to Lot. In Judges 19 a Levite was passing through the town of Gibeah with his concubine. An old man told the two to stay with him. The townsfolk beat on the man’s door demanding that he send out the Levite so that they could have sex with him. In this case they thrust the concubine out the door. The next morning the lady was near death by the front door. The Levite stepped over her, chided her to get up so they could get going. Real compassionate. When she didn’t respond he picked her up and threw her on a donkey and took off. When they got to the next destination she was dead.

Gen 19:9-14  But they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door down. ¹⁰ But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door. ¹¹ And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping for the door.
¹² Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place. ¹³ For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” ¹⁴ So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up! Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.

            Here we get a little glimpse into the spiritual life of Lot. Lot had a great start but had a terrible ending, including his descendants which would be a thorn in Israel’s side for generations. Lot had accompanied the great man of God, Abraham for years, but whatever spiritual start he had was all but gone by the time the two angels showed up. We know this because when he went to warn his sons-in-law they thought he was joking, so much so that they didn’t heed his warning. I would hope that I have built enough of a spiritual reputation with you that if I ever come to you and start talking about spiritual things, that you would not think I was joking.

Gen 19:15-17 ¹⁵ As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” ¹⁶ But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. ¹⁷ And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.”

           

            Here we have the first mention of Lot’s wife. There is a lot of urgency in the angel’s words, but in verse 16 it says that they still lingered, so much so that the angels had to grab their hands and rush them out of the city with a warning not to look back and not to stop anywhere.

Gen 19:24-26 Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. ²⁵ And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. ²⁶ But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

            Lot’s wife: nameless, speechless, and yet made it into the top ten of the Bad Girls of the Bible. Why did she look back? This has stumped people for ages, but it is this decision that makes her a bad girl. Lizz Curtis Higgs offers 10 practical suggestions as to why she looked back:

1) She missed the warnings over the wailings of her two daughters.

2) In her grief she simply forgot the angel’s warning

3) She was curious. Ever seen a city get destroyed by fire and brimstone?

4) She dropped something and stopped to pick it up.

5) She tripped over her tunic in haste.

6) She heard a cry for help and turned back out of compassion.

7) She mourned her family and friends, lost forever.

8) She longed for all of the material goodies left behind.

9) She clung to her memories of her past and dreaded her future.

10) She didn’t trust her husband’s God.  

            But none of the above quite gets it right. As in the case of Eve, she is considered a bad girl because she was disobedient. She wasn’t singled out for punishment. She disobeyed the clear command of the Lord. She turned and looked. This probably wasn’t a casual glance behind her, or even like the tricks we play on other people, “Hey don’t look now but…” making it almost impossible for them not to look. This was a long, lingering look, desiring something behind her, rather than trusting God for what was in front of her. Higgs wrote, “By lingering behind and looking, she chose to identify with her neighbors who also were doused with salt and peppered with sulfur. But unlike them, she had the chance to escape. She was offered salvation yet turned away from it. In doing so, Lot’s wife became a ‘Shrine of Unbelief.’”

            Lot’s wife, having no lines, recorded history, or subsequent follow up actions has been relegated to the Bad for a Moment list. She made one colossal blooper that is remembered and recorded for everyone to learn from.

Application: Just like Sodom and Gomorrah this world and everyone in it will be destroyed, but God has offered to us a plan of escape. Romans 3:23 says that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Romans 6:23 says “the wages of sin is death.” Ephesians 2:1 says that we were “dead in our sins and transgressions.” Sin doesn’t make you a bad person, it makes you a dead person. You don’t have a sin problem, you have a death problem. The only solution to our death problem is to accept the free gift of salvation of Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect life, and died a perfect sacrificial death to satisfy the wrath of God. Romans 5:8 says that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” This is what’s called the Great Exchange: Jesus traded His righteousness for my sinfulness. He took the punishment that I deserved, and I got the benefits of righteous living that He deserved. In doing so, God no longer sees my sins but Jesus’ righteousness in me.

            We have this plan of escape of the wrath to come, but we have to choose to take it. Hebrews 2:3 says, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” The answer is we won’t, because dead people can’t escape anything.

Bad Girls of the Bible: Potiphar's Wife

* Material taken from Bad Girls of the Bible by Liz Curtis Higgs

Bad Girls of the Bible: Potiphar’s Wife

Genesis 39:1-20

Bad Girls:      Bad to the Bone- Not a single kind word was ever spoken about them in scripture; a pattern of sinning; no evidence of remorse, repentance, or a desire to change; they sinned with gusto. Made in the image of God, so not truly bad to the core—they just behaved that way.

                        Bad for a Moment- Women who made one huge, colossal, life changing blooper that was recorded in scripture to teach everyone else a lesson. Seem to be believers in the one true God at the start but when forced to make a decision, chose disastrously.

                        Bad for a Season, but not Forever- Sins in their past, but were willing to change and be changed.

Intro: Our next Bad girl of the Bible doesn’t even have a name. She obviously had a name but it isn’t recorded in scripture anywhere. She was known only as Potiphar’s wife. That actually happens a lot in scripture: “mother of”; “wife of”; “servant of”; “daughter of.” It even happens today. Go to a little league game and you’ll see scores of parents with team shirts that say “Caleb’s Daddy,” “Cindy’s Meemaw,” and other embarrassing things. You go pick up your kid at school, “Are you Caleb’s dad?” “Yes, but my name is Adam.”

            Maybe Potiphar’s wife, or Mrs. P from here on out, loved being known as the wife of Potiphar because of the fame, notoriety, and attention that came along with it. Potiphar was the captain of Pharaoh’s guards, and some people believe him to be Pharaoh’s chief executioner. Either way Potiphar was a big, powerful, official in all of Egypt which garnered a lot of respect.

            Or maybe Mrs. P. was bored of being known as the wife of Potiphar. Maybe she was tired of everyone treating her with kid gloves. In the movie Of Mice and Men there was a young woman married to Curley, the son of a big ranch owner. She grew bored and restless on the farm and started to do things that she shouldn’t have done, stretching the confines of her marriage. If you look up her name on IMDB, her name is listed, ironically, as “Curley’s wife.” She was known only as “the wife of….”

            Perhaps Potiphar was an older man and Mrs. P was pressured into marrying him as a young teenager and never really loved him. We don’t know why Mrs. P. wandered but we do know that she did.

Genesis 39:1-6  Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. ² The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. ³ His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. ⁴ So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. ⁵ From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, in house and field. ⁶ So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate.

            Again, we’re left with more questions than answers. Why was Mr. P only interested in his food? Was he a food connoisseur? Was he just fat? Was he only concerned with his food because Joseph was so good at everything else that he didn’t need to be concerned with it? We do know that Hebrews and Egyptians couldn’t eat together from a later chapter in Genesis. Was that the reason that Mr. P. only cared about his food? Was he a beefy body builder, captain of the guards, satisfying the needs of his stomach while ignoring the needs of his wife? Mrs. P., bored to distraction, or someone with unquenchable lust? We don’t know. Enter Joseph, a man who gave Mrs. P’s wandering eye something to look at.

Genesis 39:6b Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.

            It is very rare that a person’s physical appearance is mentioned in scripture, unless it is important to the story. That makes these few words jump out at us. Joseph’s mother Rachel was also described in scripture as someone who was extremely beautiful. Joseph was a proud, handsome, young, confident man, slave in name only now strutting around the house of a neglected, older, needy, and powerful woman.

  

Genesis 39:7 And after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph…

            Just like Adam and Eve, we don’t know how long they were in the garden before they ate the fruit, we don’t know how long it was before Mrs. P cast her eyes on Joseph.

Genesis 39:7 …and said, “Lie with me!”

            Not exactly subtle. She was accustomed to getting what she wanted and what she wanted was forbidden fruit. She wanted an adulterous relationship with her husband’s foreign slave. Wrong on every count.

Genesis 39: 8-10 But he refused and said to his master's wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. ⁹ He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” ¹⁰ And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her.

            We can assume she was used to getting what she wanted. And we can assume by how aggressive she was in her request that this was probably not her first adulterous relationship with one of the slaves. Adultery was a huge issue in that time and would have been punishable by death. Joseph stood strong in the face of temptation and refused to sin against Potiphar and against God. If Mrs. P. would have quit there, apologized and begged for forgiveness from Joseph, she would have been relegated to the Bad for a Moment list. But she didn’t stop there.

Genesis 39: 11  But one day, when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house,

            I wonder how long it took Joseph to know that it was a trap. An empty house that is used to being filled with servants, now all of a sudden eerily quiet. Its hard to believe that the empty house wasn’t arranged.

Genesis 39:12 she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house.

            When it says “He left his garment in her hand” it means he ran away naked. Remember last week when we talked about one of the mistake Eve made was debating with the devil when she should have been fleeing from him. Here Joseph learned from her mistake and fled. Joseph was “completely undressed, at once disgracefully and honorably.” 

Genesis 39:13-15 ¹³ And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, ¹⁴ she called to the men of her household and said to them, “See, he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. ¹⁵ And as soon as he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house.”

            Soooo…in her story, she cried out to the hired servants, the same ones she sent outside so she could trap Joseph in private. Did anyone hear her scream? They probably didn’t hear her scream until a while after they saw a naked Joseph running through the courtyard. Here’s the timeline: Joseph runs out the door and across the lawn in the buff; Mrs. P. initially shocked, then ticked, then when she noticed she had evidence in her hand, she screamed. Several moments would have passed between the streaking Joseph and the screaming Mrs. P. According to her story, Joseph ran because she screamed.

            This was her story to the servants. If the boss lady said she screamed, she screamed. How many of them had been in the same situation of being harassed by Mrs. P. They had to go along with her story because of who she was and who she was married to.

Genesis 39:16-20 ¹⁶ Then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home, ¹⁷ and she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to laugh at me. ¹⁸ But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house.”¹⁹ As soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, “This is the way your servant treated me,” his anger was kindled. ²⁰ And Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison.


            I imagine Mrs. P. just laying on her bed smirking, waiting on her dear old hubby to come home from work, clutching Joseph’s clothes. I imagine she heard her husband coming and then started bawling like she had been crying the whole time. She fed Potiphar all of her rehearsed lines. She even blamed him by saying “this Hebrew servant whom you brought among us” like she was completely innocent. It actually reminds me of Adam when he blamed God for putting Eve in the garden with him.
            Mrs. P lusted after Joseph. When her advances were frustrated her intense desire for him was only matched by her intense hatred of him, so much so that she knew that she was handing him over to be killed. The intense love turned to intense hate is played out later in scripture when one of David’s sons rapes his sister because he desired her so much. That desire, the Bible says turned to hatred, as well.
            Mr. P’s anger was kindled. Anger was kindled at whom? Joseph or Mrs. P? I don’t think Mr. P was so stupid that he couldn’t see that his wife was running around on him. Perhaps this wasn’t the first time this has happened. But in order to save himself from being humiliated he had thrown Joseph in jail. Prison yes, but executed no. Remember, Mr. P was the chief executioner. He was very good at it. He didn’t want to put Joseph to death, because he knew he was innocent.

Conclusion:

Proverbs 6: 16-19 There are six things that the Lord hates,
    seven that are an abomination to him:
¹⁷ haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
    and hands that shed innocent blood,
¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked plans,
    feet that make haste to run to evil,
¹⁹ a false witness who breathes out lies,
    and one who sows discord among brothers.

            Is there any of those that Mrs. P didn’t do?
            Yes, Joseph was sent away to prison, but if you keep reading the rest of the story of Genesis, God was with him through it all and He blessed him. What happened to Mrs. P? She was never mentioned again in scripture. While Joseph went on to be the number 2 man in all of Egypt, Mrs. P was trapped in a prison of her own. Her prison bars were made of lust, revenge, and lies. Her warden was her husband who had every reason to mistrust her.
            What else can we get from this story? Joseph was an innocent man punished for a crime he didn’t commit, but God was with him, and He used him for a greater purpose. Jesus was an innocent man punished for crimes He didn’t commit, but God used Him for a greater purpose, too. In taking on the sins He didn’t commit he paid our debt and we can be free.
 

    

Bad Girls of the Bible: Eve

*Material taken from Bad Girls of the Bible by Liz Curtis Higgs

Bad Girls of the Bible: Eve

Genesis 2:15-3:13

Bad Girls:      Bad to the Bone- Not a single kind word was ever spoken about them in scripture; a pattern of sinning; no evidence of remorse, repentance, or a desire to change; they sinned with gusto. Made in the image of God, so not truly bad to the core—they just behaved that way.

                        Bad for a Moment- Women who made one huge, colossal, life changing blooper that was recorded in scripture to teach everyone else a lesson. Seem to be believers in the one true God at the start but when forced to make a decision, chose disastrously.

                        Bad for a Season, but not Forever- Sins in their past, but were willing to change and be changed.

Intro: Today we are going to be studying Eve, and the fall of man. Adam and Eve were called to work the land in the Garden of Eden. Some people believe that work entered the world after the fall as a result of sin. In actuality, hard work and toil entered into the world after the fall. Before sin, gardening was a cushy job. There was no rain, weeds, thistles, stickers, wascally wabbits, or unproducing crops. There were no irrigation trenches to be dug, because God watered the garden like the misters in the produce section at the grocery store.

            Adam worked the garden and named the animals as they walked by. “Squirrel, kangaroo, giraffe, skunk.” That was his life until God wanted to give him a suitable partner. God put him in a deep sleep, removed his rib and created woman. Imagine what Adam must have felt like when he woke up and saw Eve in all her beauty. He named her right away—“Whoa, man!” Man was made out of dust, but the woman was made out of finer material. Why did God use the rib? Skeletally speaking, the rib is not a load bearing wall, and secondly it was close to Adam’s heart. When Adam woke up he said, “This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” He had finally found a suitable partner.    

            Let’s think about Eve for a minute. One of the more interesting things to think about Adam and Eve is that neither one of them had a belly button. Neither one of them were born and thus had no umbilical cord. But let’s dig deeper. They were both made as fully functioning human adults. Little boys and little girls are not attracted to each other, in fact they don’t like each other for a phase in their life, and then all of a sudden they notice, and enjoy the subtle differences between the sexes. Adam and Eve skipped all of that. Adam woke up from his nap, and said, “Forget this naming the animals business and was immediately enamored with his new partner.

            Eve was beautiful, perfect, and innocent. She didn’t go through puberty, so she didn’t have an awkward self-image of herself. She didn’t have zits, or pock marks from chicken pocks. No scars from falling off her bike as a kid. No blemishes. She was the first woman, the head of the genetic line, so she had no weird genetic mutations. She didn’t inherit her grandma’s weird nose, or her mom’s big ears. She was the essence of perfection. On top of that she was the only woman. She had no competition. She didn’t have to compare herself to super models, centerfolds, or the women on the magazines at the checkout line at the grocery store. No one was taller, thinner, younger, or more beautiful than her.

            So how could a woman who had all of this going for her, throw it all away? Women do it every day. Men do it, too. We throw away perfectly wonderful lives because our foolish sinful appetites takes us places we should not go. Sin over promises and under delivers.

Scripture: Genesis 2:15-3:13

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, ¹⁷ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat^[a] of it you shall surely die.”

¹⁸ Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for^[b] him.” ¹⁹ Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed^[c] every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. ²⁰ The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam^[d] there was not found a helper fit for him. ²¹ So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. ²² And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made^[e] into a woman and brought her to the man. ²³ Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones
    and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
    because she was taken out of Man.”^[f]

²⁴ Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. ²⁵ And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

The Fall

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You^[g] shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” ² And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, ³ but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” ⁴ But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. ⁵ For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,^[h] she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

⁸ And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool^[i] of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”^{[j] 10} And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” ¹¹ He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” ¹² The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” ¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Analysis of the Sin The serpent entered the scene and said to the woman (Eve had not been named by then), “Did God really say you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”

            A lot of questions come to mind. Why didn’t Eve freak out that the snake was talking when none of the other animals could talk? Why did he go after Eve and not Adam? Was Eve at the wrong place at the wrong time? Did satan go looking for her? “When the devil comes a-tempting, he seldom goes for group conversions. He waits until we’re alone, then he spins his web of deceit.”

            Eve didn’t make one colossal mistake. She made a series of bad mistakes.

1) Don’t Talk to Strangers: Or strange animals. She got into a debate with satan. What she should have done was high tailed it to the other side of the garden. There’s no reason to discuss or reason with the devil.

            Satan begins by deliberately misquoting scripture, even putting words in the Lord’s mouth. Secondly, he twists God’s words to make Him sound unfair, unloving, and cruel.

2) She Corrected Satan: Eve meant well by correcting satan when he got the word of the Lord wrong, but again she should have been beating feet out of there.

3) She Added a Misquotation of Her Own: She corrected the serpent that it was only the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that they were not to eat from. But then she added that they weren’t supposed to touch it either. God didn’t say that. She was exaggerating. Exaggerate literally means to enlarge beyond the truth. “When we exaggerate we plant seeds of doubts in the minds of others—Did God really say that other thing?—and in our own mind—Maybe God’s words need my help.” Satan didn’t draw attention to her own misquotation because she was already down the path of deceiving herself.

            Satan turned the relationship of sin and death upside down in 3:4 when he said, “You will not surely die,” making God out to be less than an all loving God. In verse 5 he shifts the focus from what “God said” to what “God knows.” How could the serpent know what God was thinking? He couldn’t have. He then offers two reasons why this unloving God would withhold something good from them: 1) It will open their eyes; 2) They will be like God knowing good from evil. Eve probably didn’t hear that part because she didn’t know what evil was. She was already tempted by the eye opening and being like God.

4) She Took Her Focus off of God and onto Herself: She stopped thinking about what God had commanded her, (and remember there was only one commandment) and focused on how the fruit of that tree would be beneficial to her—open eyes, and being like God. Notice satan completely takes himself out of the picture, like there is nothing for him to gain by her act of rebellion. In her eyes, he’s just a friendly neighbor offering advice. He’s like a sleazy used car salesman, selling you something you don’t want and can’t afford because he wants a commission check. He doesn’t care about you. All he wants is what he can get from you. The advice he’s giving is breaking down the trust between woman and her God—an institution. As you live your lives people will come to you, seemingly offering you friendly advice, but in reality they are tearing down trust between you and your parents, you and your wife or husband, you and your friends. What do they have to gain?

            The first benefit satan offers Eve is that her eyes will be open. Many parents home school their children to protect them from what’s going on in the world. They want to control what parts of their child’s world their eyes are opened to. You don’t really know what’s out there in the world until your eyes have been opened to it. But once your eyes have been opened you can never go back to what you were like before. Now that I’ve been in a third world country, I’ll never forget what it is like to see so much waste and garbage. There is a whole other world for drug users, but once they are introduced to it, they are addicted, their lives are ruined, and they can never go back. Do you think the people who are addicted to crystal meth are thankful to the person who opened their eyes to that drug? No, their lives are ruined. Crystal meth is one of the most powerfully addictive substances in the world. People who use it once are addicted. It changes your brain patterns forever, and shrinks your blood vessels. Your body then gets deficient in blood in certain areas and it does irreparable harm. Don’t believe me? Google “Meth Mouth.”

            Your eyes being open is not always a good thing.

            The second benefit is being like God. Who wouldn’t want to be like God? How many of you would like to live in a world where I was God?

3:6 Saw the fruit was good: We don’t know how long she was in the garden before she ate the forbidden fruit but the tree was there the whole time. It wasn’t until Satan brought up the fruit that she was tempted by it and noticed that it looked good to eat. Ever noticed how badly you want something you can’t have? You probably could care less about something until you’re told you can’t have it. Four things happened to Eve as a result of the conversation with the serpent:

                        1) She stopped looking to God for truth.

                        2) She stopped looking to her husband for shared counsel.

                        3) She stopped looking at the blessing all around and available to her.

                        4) She even stopped looking to the serpent for direction. He never says another word after that. The seeds of deception had been planted in fertile ground. The fruit was good for food, pleasing to the eye, and desirable for gaining knowledge. “With rationalization, and justification the woman was in rebellion with God.”

            The Bible says that God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden. He was a physical presence, not just a spiritual presence, in their lives. They saw Him, talked with Him, and knew Him. How could she have forsaken His one command? Some say she was courageous (sinning for the first time ever), ambitious, and curious. These are good traits if you exploring a new land, but bad traits if you are rebelling against God. “I’d enjoy the taste, I like the look of it, I’ll be like God.”

            3:6 She Took Some and Ate It: The entire history of mankind balanced on the axis of six words, “She took some and ate it.” Three words in Hebrew.

            Eve had no one to blame but herself. She didn’t have a rough up-bringing, no dysfunctional family, not a wayward husband, not abject hunger, not poverty or need of any kind.

            The serpent didn’t offer up an “attagirl” He didn’t say anything. Did he stick around and celebrate? Were there demons there celebrating? We don’t know. There was no one there, and then Adam showed up. She gave the fruit to Adam, who in the Hebrew language was standing right with her, and he ate of it to. We don’t know when he showed up. Did he hear the whole conversation? Did he show up mid bite? Did he show up after everything went down? We don’t know.  We do know that when Eve gave Adam its fruit he offered up no word of protest. He ate the fruit. Tom Turman says this is proof that a naked woman can get you to eat anything.

            How does it end? God shows up. Man blames the woman and in turn blames God for putting her with him, and the woman blames the serpent.

            Eve doesn’t fit into the three categories of “bad” we talked about earlier: Bad to the Bone, Bad for a Moment, Bad for a Season but not forever. She is in a class all by herself—a one of a kind bad girl. She was the first woman ever created: Perfect, beautiful, innocent, and naïve and, subsequently, completely unrelatable to anyone. She was tempted by her flesh, humbled by her sin, and redeemed by her God. Now she is relatable to everyone.